


the sting of hidden cuts

by coloredink



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Episode: s03e01 The Empty Hearse, Gen, Missing Scene, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-02
Updated: 2014-01-02
Packaged: 2018-01-07 04:33:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1115557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coloredink/pseuds/coloredink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Show me your hands."</p>
            </blockquote>





	the sting of hidden cuts

**Author's Note:**

> Just a trifle; a missing scene that demanded to be thrust upon you.

John came across them in the bottom of the kitchen sink, of all places.

"What're these?" He picked them up gingerly between forefinger and thumb. Well, one of them; they were a pair, as he discovered when one of them peeled off and fell back into the sink with a splat. That was also when he realised that they were a pair of leather gloves, now absolutely ruined from sitting in dirty dishwater. (And why was he doing the washing up, again? He didn't even live here anymore.)

Sherlock glanced over his shoulder from the sitting room, where he was tapping his fingers and toes and pacing back and forth waiting to hear whether their rat had been taken into custody. "Oh, you can bin those. They're ruined."

"Well, yes, since you _left them in the sink_." But not only that; when John picked the second one out of the sink, one of the fingers came apart and the rest of it flopped back into the water. Little black flecks adhered to John's skin, and he saw that part of the palm of the glove was missing, scorched black around the hole.

John shut off the water and stayed standing at the sink for a long time, staring into the suds.

"Sherlock," he called at last. "Come over here." When nothing but silence emanated from the sitting room, he leaned on it: " _Sherlock_."

" _What_ ," Sherlock snarled.

"Just come in here."

Sherlock stormed into the kitchen with a huff. "What?"

"Show me your hands."

Sherlock rolled his eyes and stuck out his hands.

"Other side."

Sherlock turned up his palms. His left hand seemed fine, but the right one had a shiny red weal across the palm and a small, scarlet blister that stood out on the meaty part of the thumb. John looked at it for a while before asking, "Does it hurt?"

"No." When John gave Sherlock a Look, Sherlock fidgeted and said, "Not anymore."

John sighed. "Doesn't need bandaging, I should think; just try to keep it from getting infected."

"Yes, _doctor_ ," Sherlock sighed. "May I go now?"

"Yes." John turned back to the dishes. Sherlock flounced back into the sitting room, then back through the kitchen to the bathroom. John smiled and threw the gloves in the bin.


End file.
